RACING:IT'S CALLED "Champions Day" but Ascot this afternoon is all about one horse for which the label 'champion' is barely sufficient. Horses like Fame And Glory and Excelebration are champions: But already Frankel is defined by greater standards than today's Champion Stakes opposition can hope to reach.
That such a statement is possible with both Cirrus Des Aigles and Nathaniel lining up against him is indicative of the status Frankel has carved out for himself in 13 unbeaten career starts to date.
Both rivals are genuinely top-class, multiple Group One winners and ordinarily Cirrus Des Aigles’ official rating would have him pushing for the title of best in the world. However, those keen to see a genuine contest in what will probably be Frankel’s career swansong are largely pinning their hopes on ground likely to be softer than anything the great horse has faced to date.
A majority will instead be rooting for a triumphant victory procession towards the breeding shed that will provide a perfect dénouement for a story of a horse and a trainer whose battle with illness has captured the most cynical of hearts. Henry Cecil knows better than anyone that Frankel’s real competition now is a hypothetical one, revolving around his position in the impossible ‘GOAT’ debate.
Nobody can prove for certain if the colt with the raking stride and relentless gallop is the greatest of all time. Those who believe Sea Bird, Ribot or Sea The Stars remain superior can make as justifiable an argument ‘for’ their heroes as Frankel’s can ‘against’. What is beyond doubt, though, is Frankel’s right to be right in the mix for the ultimate pub racing debate.
As such, it isn’t the details of today that should be recorded but just the date. Either way this will be a benchmark moment: a shock defeat or a final coronation. However, only those with a financial interest in seeing Frankel being beaten, or just the plain begrudging, will be happy with anything else bar one final hurrah.
Whether it will in fact be that simple is another matter. Ground conditions could play a major role, so much so that Frankel’s odds which had been close to the usual 1 to 10 are now significantly shorter. There is also the fact he is now at the end of a third long campaign.
Even the greatest can’t keep going forever. And then there is opposition that might just be the best he has faced to date.
Much of the substance behind the Frankel hype has come through Excelebration who has come up short five times against his old rival but has twice won at the top level when saved from the fruitless task of chasing the horse in green and pink colours home.
The last of those, August’s Prix Jacques Le Marois, saw Aidan O’Brien’s miler decisively beat the other Group One winners, Cityscape and Elusive Kate, who line up against him in the QEII.
“He’s been in good form since his last run and the QEII was the race we were looking at,” O’Brien said yesterday. “He’s a very good horse. He was very good last year, and the year before.”
O’Brien runs the Oaks heroine Was in the Fillies and Mares Stakes and Fame And Glory in the Long Distance Cup, races also targeted by Dermot Weld with Sapphire and Rite Of Passage respectively. But like everything else, even a Gold Cup winner like Rite Of Passage stands in the Ascot wings today as Frankel enters, and then presumably departs, as always, a winner.
ON UP DOWN UNDER: O'Donghue bids to extend big-race CV
Just after 6am this morning, classic winning Irish jockey Colm O’Donoghue will hope to extend his big-race CV to Australia when he partners Jakkalberry in the $2.5 million Caulfield Cup.
The English-trained Jakkalberry is one of 19 lining up in the major trial for next month’s Melbourne Cup and a race that itself makes up the first leg of Australian racing’s grand-slam.
As a 19-year-old O’Donoghue spent three months based near the Melbourne racecourse and rode six winners when working for trainer Lee Freedman. The jockey who rode Treasure Beach to win last year’s Irish Derby has also tasted top-flight success in the US and Canada and France and the UAE. After Caulfied he plans to spend a few weeks riding in Japan before returning to ride Jakkalberry in the Melbourne Cup. O’Donoghue said: “The start can be the winning and losing of the race. Once you can get into a good position you can ride a race. And Jakkalberry has a lot of things in his favour.”
CAULFIELD CUP: 10/3 Glencadam Gold, 6-1 December Draw, 6-1 Dunaden, 10-1 Lights Of Heaven, 12-1 My Quest For Peace, Folding Gear, 16-1 Jakkalberry, Southern Speed, Sneak A Peak, Alcopop, Americain, 20-1 Voila Ici, Niwot, Secret Admirer, 25-1 Winchester, 33-1 Zabeelionaire, 50-1 Moudre, Sangas.
